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We Need To Talk About Anjelica Huston

Anjelica Huston onscreen is one word. Power. When I misbehaved recently on a work day and decided to take a Hulu break, the preview for "Smash" popped up in my queue.

"Smash" is a new NBC series that follows the creation of a Broadway show based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Musicals and Marilyn? Um...I was in. I pressed play without hesitation.

But this isn't a review of "Smash". Though I would highly recommend you watch it. The show has an ease of pace and that goosebump-inducing goodness that only a great showtune can bring.

But it also has something else...Anjelica Huston. Just the sight of her literally makes me sit up and pay attention anytime I see her face or hear her voice. There is a shot in "Smash" of Anjelica Huston defiantly walking down a hallway and it gave me the chills.

Her character on the show is Eileen Rand, a soon-to-be ex-wife whose husband is trying to shut her down and shut her up in every way, steal her passion and prevent her from producing a "My Fair Lady" revival on Broadway. But Rand is determined to produce something, so she secretly sets all the wheels in motion on the Marilyn musical. It's a new project she can channel all her energy and frustration into. Watching Huston portray a character who is so good at what they do is exhilarating.

Every second Huston spends onscreen is captivating.

One of my mentors, writer Jill Christman, used to approach inspiration from a psychological standpoint. Her theory was that us creative types tend to obsess and fixate. Rather than fight that, we should indulge it and try to get to the root of our obsession so we can channel that obsessive energy into something productive. (Think of the fanboy and fangirl lives this theory could change...can you imagine a world where every fangirl was productive? There might be peace in three weeks.)

So what is it with me and Anjelica Huston? Let me think over some of her roles that spring to mind first...

Exhibit A: I was eight when The Addams Family movie came out. If you read this blog, then you know I had a family that would happily slog to our local cinema to see just about anything. You can bet we were front and center for that one. How did the movie impact me? On Halloween the next year, I was Morticia Addams.

She was sarcastic, like the women in my family. She was secure and affectionate and she completely embraced her weirdness...also like the women in my family. Chalk one dose of early influence up to Anjelica Huston. Though I guess I should be disturbed that such a dark and gothic character held a mirror up to the matriarchs of my family?

Moving along...

Exhibit B: The films of Wes Anderson had a huge impact on me during my early adulthood. The Royal Tenenbaums (For which my husband and I dubbed our Manx "Royal".) and The Life Aquatic in particular feature Huston in characters that showcase her full power. She is complex, resolute and if I may say so...more than a little badass. (There's a great shot of her in a speedboat that I can't find of Google images, but it sort of says it all about her character.)

Huston in her roles as Ethel Tenenbaum and Eleanor Zissou are foibles to the man-children that populate Wes Anderson's movies. Huston plays both of those characters as patient but with a line that can't be crossed. Ethel and Eleanor are both exasperated by the slow speed of the people around them. Both characters are so intelligent that they can't help but face a life of frustration. Who could partner with a woman like that and hope to keep up? Well, according to the films...no one.

These are magic movies for me, I ramble on about them a lot. But so much of that magic comes from Anjelica Huston and her almost ethereal screen presence and impeccable comedic timing.

Exhibit C: Huston once had a long guest arc on the show Medium. She brought the exact same toughness for which she is frequently cast, but with a new twist on the theme. Her character, Cynthia Keener, is a private investigator with secret motivations. And her story arc doesn't have a nice neat ending, but it does have a satisfying one. Sorry to be cryptic, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it. It's one of my favorite A-list guest arcs on a TV series.

But this Huston character is far more vulnerable. She's peeling like wallpaper. She's on the edge at all times. Still powerful, but that power is seeping through the cracks of a fragmented woman and it's not under control at all.

So I guess what I'm getting at here, if I look for the commonalities in the things that I say I love about her performances, is that Angelica Huston is one heck of an actress. Even her supporting role in Woody Allen's hilarious "Manhattan Murder Mystery" steals the show.

Again and again she gives layered performances. She weaves together characters as complex and authentic as anyone you might meet on the street. She portrays contradictions and convictions very well. And let's face it...she's gorgeous.

Someone, write AH an action movie.
NOW.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with action heroines. Give me gunplay and swordfights onscreen or give me death. (There's another blog for that entirely...but I'm thinking of combining that one and this one.) Anjelica Huston is sort of like the Shakespearean version of an action heroine. She has all the toughness, the signature eyebrow-raise and the dominance of Ripley from Alien. But she tempers it all with realism.

In my favorite Anjelica Huston performances, she portrays strong characters almost like bubbling pots. The strength is always there, but it's kept under a tight lid of self-control. Which it could be said, is another form of strength after all.

I try to go about my fangirl-ness with academic reasoning. Mostly because, well, it makes me feel a little bit less crazy for my obsessive tendencies. But the truth is, sometimes something just gets to your core. I can try to rationalize my obsessions by thinking of building them into essay collections or convention presentations. (And that's what I'm working on now.)

But ah, here is another tie to why I might be obsessing over Huston at the moment.

Have you ever seen her play an airhead? I haven't. Can I tell you the truth about something? This is a real confession here and it's just dawning on me. I dumb myself down. A lot. Because I'm embarrassed by my need to delve in such pretentious academic ways. I'm annoying when I voice my whole train of thought. I over-think movies and TV. I know I do. But it's how my brain really functions. It's what I love to think about and talk about. I've been hidden and unfriended from facebook for what people perceive is my pretentiousness. And I really don't mean to be! But the result of all that, is that I try to self-censor a lot more than I used to.

Eleanor Zissou would never lie about
AP English...oh the shame...

You know even back in Junior High, I lied about honors English being too difficult for me so I could change lunch periods and join some of my friends who were annoyed that my honors English class put me on a different schedule. (And the class was a piece of cake.) That one lie changed the entire course of my education and it still kills me when I think about it.

Anjelica Huston plays concentrated roles. Power. Strength. Intelligence. There's never a drop of compromise. That's part of what draws me to her performances.

I am no Anjelica Huston. And I don't think I'm better or smarter than anyone, but can I just tell you, that people think I think that a lot. If you follow. So maybe I see something truly admirable in Huston's roles. Something cathartic in that, "I am the way I am." thread that follows her through most of her films and TV appearances. Without going into specifics, I'll just say, I wish I could be that brave. I wish I didn't frustrate people or annoy them. I wish I didn't care so much. That my chest didn't fill with that kind of angry heat when I start talking about feminism in film. That being driven and passionate and knowing how you want something to go didn't automatically translate to "bossy" or "pushy". I wish I cared about something else. Maybe I can retrain myself at some point. How on Earth will I ever use talking about movies and TV to make the world a better place?

Help me Anjelica Huston,
you're my only hope...

This is getting really whiny and weird. How did that happen? Kudos to Jill Christman for creating a method of digging into your inspirations that leads to self-revelation. Who knew that watching a TV show could lead to reading the bones. I didn't know I was going to be writing about any of this when I started blogging this morning. But there it is...apparently, I have some issues to work through right now.

It should also be noted that I'm living under a mountain of work at the moment and I get creatively back-logged which leads to these odd entries. I used to write polished up little lists of things, in the good old days when I could focus. It was originally just supposed to be a list of my favorite Anjelica Huston roles and look what happened...

More than anything else, the truth is that I just think Anjelica Huston is amazing. Classy, lovely and gifted. And what kind of fangirl would I be if I couldn't just appreciate good art for art's sake?

For years, I've cited Morticia Addams as a role model of mine. As I get older, that remains true. But lately, I'm realizing that it's Anjelica Huston, the woman under the makeup, that inspires me much more. Such a cheesy ending. But there it is.

Stealing is Wrong

All of the text and many of the photos here are exclusive property of Audrey Brown, (c) 2008-2018. Link without needing my permission, reference your little heart out (as long as I'm cited). Just don't steal.